


#ToddandNeil'swedding2ksomething

by Andsoshewrites



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-03 05:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4089277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andsoshewrites/pseuds/Andsoshewrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"'Let's be [Neil and Todd's] wedding planners!' Charlie says, looking positively elated.</p><p>Steven tries not to say yes a little too quickly."</p><p>Imagine a romantic comedy in which two college students try to plan their friends' wedding, eventually leading up to them falling in love themselves. Now imagine that the friends getting married are Neil Perry and Todd Anderson, and the two college students trying to plan their wedding are Steven Meeks and Charlie Dalton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is such a sitcom, oh my god.
> 
> I watched Dead Poets Society for the first time less than two weeks ago, and it's already sucked me in.
> 
> Enjoy!

Steven Meeks loves love.

Which is why, when Charlie Dalton sprints into the kitchen and nearly knocks Steven out of his chair, thrusting his cell phone into his face and going on about the picture he was just sent of Neil and Todd showing off their engagement rings, Steven isn’t mad (well, it’s not like he _would_ have been mad, but he would have acted like it).

“They’re getting _married_!” Charlie all but shrieks, and Steven wouldn’t even have had to ask who if Charlie hadn’t just been screaming about it because, well, knowing their friends, it’s kind of obvious who would be getting married right now, when they’re all still in college and sometimes think about whether they should pay their phone bill for that month, pay the electric bill for that month, or actually _buy some goddamn groceries_.

Still, Steven says, “Now?” as he snatches the phone from Charlie’s hand and looks at the picture more closely. Neil and Todd look _so_ happy, with their grins so wide that they look like they’re threatening to tear the corners of their mouths; it’s so adorable that it’s _disgusting_ , just as it’s always been.

“Yes, _now_ ,” Charlie says like it’s the most palpable thing in the world, “tell me that those two aren’t the most high school sweethearts-ish people you’ve ever met. They wanted to get married basically the day that both of them were eighteen, but I told them to wait until they could do something more than essentially _elope_ because I would definitely be downright _offended_ if I didn’t have the chance to give a best man’s speech at their painfully mushy wedding.” Charlie removes himself from Steven’s lap now and sits in the other chair at their meager kitchen table. “Oh my, _God_ , Steven. Todd and Neil are getting married!”

Wordlessly, Steven hands Charlie’s phone back to him and fishes his own phone out of his pocket to look at the identical messages sent by Todd and Neil. “If they’re actually going to have a wedding,” he says, “per _your_ request, how are they gonna pay for it all?”

“Let’s be their wedding planners!” Charlie says, looking positively elated.

Steven tries not to say yes a little too quickly.

-

“Neil, Todd, me and Steven are gonna be your wedding planners,” Charlie says at the post-engagement ‘party’ at Neil and Todd’s place. It should be noted that this ‘party’ is actually just a collective action by Neil and Todd’s friends to come to their apartment and pester them about their engagement. To their credit, though, Todd and Neil take this intrusion well.

“Oh, yeah, Charlie?” Neil says, “Says who?”

“Says your wallet.”

“We _just_ got engaged, Charlie,” Todd says, smiling a bit and intertwining his and Neil’s hands because they’re getting _married_.

“Oh, please. You two have practically been engaged since you first _met_. I’ll bet that you have a good half of your wedding planned out already.”

“How does Steven even feel about being our wedding planner?”

“Are you accusing me of trying to rope someone into something they don’t want to do? I’m hurt.” Charlie throws a hand over his heart and makes a faux-pained expression. “Hey, Steven!” he calls, “Come and tell these lovey-dovey hooligans that I’m not a liar.”

Steven walks over to the tiny couch that is only used to sitting Todd and Neil and sits, cramming himself almost entirely into one of the armrests. “What’s Charlie lying about this time?” Steven asks, snickering when Charlie gives him a scandalized look.

“He says that you want to be our wedding planner with him.”

“Oh, well, that’s not a lie, actually.”

“What do you mean _actually_?”

The entirely too large number of people in Neil and Todd’s teeny apartment have started to congregate over to their tiny couch both because that’s where the couple of the day is and because that’s where the talk about the actual wedding is. Gerard is the first to butt into the conversation between Neil, Todd, Steven, and Charlie.

“I don’t doubt that you two are passionate enough to be Neil and Todd’s wedding planners, but have you guys ever even _been_ to a wedding?”

“Have _you_ , Gerard?” Charlie asks at the same time Steven says,

“Yeah, a few times. I went to one last year when my cousin got married.”

“Well, I mean, I can’t fault Charlie for that. I’m the one getting married, and I’ve never been to a wedding,” Neil says.

“You’ve never been to a wedding? I didn’t know that,” Todd says. Knox starts laughing then, and everyone asks him just what it is that’s so funny.

“You guys are the first ones in our group to get married. Of course, we’re all kind of new to this.” There are some chuckles all around.

“Imagine when you guys have kids,” Steven says, “’yeah, I’ll babysit! I looked after my cousin’s kids once a few years ago, so I’m sure everything will be fine!’”

“Kids!” Todd exclaims, putting his bright red face into his hands.

“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage!” Charlie singsongs.

“Stop terrorizing my fiancé,” Neil says, but the laughter is evident in his voice. He kisses a part of Todd’s cheek that he can get to with Todd’s hands in the way.

Later, Todd will say that Charlie and Steven ‘somehow’ managed to become he and Neil’s wedding planners, but he knows just as well as everyone else that it was pretty much destined to happen from the minute that Charlie Dalton got the idea into his head.

Before Charlie and Steven even start to act out their duties as wedding planners, though, Charlie buys a big packet of colored pens for more money than Steven considers completely reasonable. Still, Steven buys a wedding planning notebook (“We’re on a budget; we don’t _need_ anything with more than a plastic cover,”) and scribbles all over the cover of it with Charlie using the colored pens. Charlie draws a big heart with ‘N + T’ inside of it, and Steven writes ‘#ToddandNeil’swedding2ksomething’.

Even with their quote unquote ‘awesome’ wedding planning notebook (“This looks _awesome_ ,” Charlie had said, and Steven had laughed at him for using one of the most overused adjectives possible), Charlie and Steven aren’t completely prepared when the wedding planning actually s _tarts_.

Their first wedding-oriented Skype call with Todd and Neil lets Charlie and Steven know that Todd and Neil are quite possibly the most indecisive people ever.

Well, it’s not that they’re indecisive. It’s that they’re both very imaginative and can’t quite agree on everything.

“Okay, so, a venue,” Charlie says like the word is strange on his tongue. Steven snorts a little because Charlie is just so _excited_ , and he can tell.

“Should we get married outside, Todd?”

“Well, I mean, _when_ are we getting married?”

“That’s…a really good question,” Steven says. “When _do_ you guys wanna get married?” Neil says spring at the same time that Todd says fall and Steven resists the urge to lie his head down on his bed (which is the bed that he and Charlie are currently lying on, as Steven doesn’t trust Charlie to keep his bed in the same realm as clean).

“Fall?” Neil asks, “Todd, it’ll be cold!”

“Yeah, but it’ll be so pretty! Think of all of the colors.”

“But think about how _nice_ it’ll be outside if we get married in the spring.” Neil starts to nibble on Todd’s ear, and Steven coughs a little bit to remind them that they’re not the only two people on the planet, despite how often they seem to have eyes only for each other.

“So, have we established that you two _are_ getting married outside, since you’re so worried about what season the wedding will be in?” Todd and Neil look at each other, and Charlie swears that they do some sort of telepathic bullshit.

“Yeah, we think so,” Neil says. Steven flips open the wedding planning notebook and writes ‘outdoor wedding’ in ‘glorious green’ as Neil and Todd stare at each other again.

“Should we get married in a big, open field?” Todd asks Neil.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Neil tells him. Charlie writes ‘big, open field’ in a vibrant color of purple that Steven can’t remember the exact name of next to where Steven had written ‘outdoor wedding’. “Todd, if we get married in an open field, though, there wouldn’t be any trees around, so it would make more sense to have the wedding in the spring, right?” Neil smiles at Todd in a way that is very Neil-ish (and _gross_ in Charlie’s 100% professional opinion).

“Alright, we can get married in the spring.” Neil gives Todd a kiss as Charlie and Steven both write down ‘spring’ and then wordlessly shove each other because _they_ were writing that.

A few more ideas are thrown out—though none fruitful—before the four of them deem the Skype call to be over and say their goodbyes. “Can you guys, like, try to talk about aspects of the wedding and agree on things before you talk to us?” Steven asks Neil and Todd.

“Yeah, we’ll do that, sorry for being, uh…”

“Sickeningly adorable?” Charlie substitutes. Neil laughs.

“Yeah, let’s go with that.”

The Skype call ends, and Charlie throws himself facedown onto Steven’s bed (sideways, so that there’s room for Steven too) and groans. “This is hard,” he says into the mattress.

“It was your idea,” Steven tells him, but he lies next to Charlie all the same. He grabs Charlie’s hand and a ‘totally teal’ pen and doodles two bodiless suits on Charlie’s palm.

“What the Hell did you just draw on my hand?” Charlie asks without lifting his head to even attempt to look at the drawing, his voice muffled but comprehensible.

“Some wedding stuff. You’d find out if you actually lifted your head off of _my_ bed.” Charlie groans for several seconds but eventually flips himself over and looks at his hand. He puts it down beside him after observing the drawing for a few seconds.

Instead of commenting on it, Charlie says, “I don’t like knowing what their budget is for everything. It makes me feel like I’m intruding into their personal life or something. And considering the number of hickies I saw on the both of them back in high school I’m pretty sure that that’s not something I want to intrude on.”

“You know, you’ve made some shitty attempts at trying to cover up the fact that you care, but that was definitely one of the shittiest.”

“Shut up.”

-

Here, on this day in 2015, the thing that Charlie is the most tired of seeing _in the world_ is _fields_. “Why do they even _want_ to get married in a field? That’s so _boring_ ,” Charlie groans, his cheek smashed into Steven’s shoulder as they look for fields that are not only suitable for a wedding but are also close by and look like something that Todd and Neil would like. Steven clicks another link and sighs.

“I never want to do this again.”

“I hate Neil and Todd and their gross _being in love_ thing.”

“No,” Steven takes his glasses off and puts them on the table, rubbing at his eyes and letting them slip closed, “we love Neil and Todd; that’s why we’re doing this for them.”

Charlie fumbles around for the touchpad to Steven’s laptop then begrudgingly opens his eyes. “Do you need any of these tabs bookmarked?” he asks; Steven makes a disaffirming noise. Charlie closes out of the Internet and shuts down Steven’s laptop. “I don’t like getting tired at eleven PM. It makes me feel old.”

“ _Please_ , Charlie. You’re twenty.” Charlie makes a hacking sound. A few moments pass in which neither Charlie nor Steven speaks.

“Charlie, I’m gonna fall asleep in like two seconds so please remove your face from me so that I can throw myself into my bed.”

“Mmm…five more minutes.”

“I’m gonna fall asleep in this _wooden_ chair, and you’re not gonna move me out of it, and I’m gonna wake up in the morning with a stiff back and cricks in my neck, and I’m gonna be mad at you.”

They both end up falling asleep in their chairs. When Steven complains about his back, his neck, and his spine in general, Charlie just blows a kiss at him before slipping out the door to go get breakfast before going to class. Steven has half a mind to replace the jug of cherry soda that Charlie is always drinking directly from with Kool-Aid.

-

Steven has Gerard over for the weekend, and the two of them are talking about a class they have to take for their engineering majors, when Charlie comes running through the apartment from his room with his phone in his hands. “Steven,” his eyes flicker over to Gerard, “Gerard, I found it!”

“Found what?” Gerard asks.

“The goddamn field where Neil and Todd are gonna get married. Steven, if Neil and Todd have a sudden change of heart in what kind of venue they want for their wedding, will you help me kill them?”

“Possibly,” Steven says as he takes the phone from Charlie and looks at the field that he’s found. As he flips through pictures, Steven says, “You’re _right_ , Charlie, they’ll love this!” Charlie looks smug and strikes a pose.

“…Were you seriously looking at wedding venues in your free time?” Gerard asks.

“Never be a wedding planner,” Charlie says in complete seriousness, and all three of them laugh.

Charlie texts the link containing the _perfect field_ to Todd and Neil, and he receives two excited yeses and a date, in the spring like they had said, for the wedding. Charlie shows the text to Steven and Gerard with a big grin on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I even had fun looking over it and editing it (well, more fun than usual)!
> 
> The next chapter might take a little longer than this one (but hopefully not too much longer), as I don't have it /completely/ typed out at the time that I'm publishing this, as I did with this chapter in reference to the last chapter.

“You call them.”

“No, _you_ call them.”

“Steven, I swear, I will literally _suck your dick_ if you call the goddamn catering company.”

“What if I don’t _want_ you to suck my dick?”

“I am _so_ tired of calling companies, Steven. _So_ tired.”

“So am I.” A pause. “Rock paper scissors?” Steven draws paper and Charlie draws scissors. Steven groans while Charlie yells in triumph. The entire time that Steven is on the phone with the catering company, Charlie has one middle finger up to him while he uses his other hand to scroll through his phone. Steven matches the finger with one of his own.

Steven stops talking to the representative from the catering company with a cheerful goodbye and then groans and throws his phone at Charlie just because he can. “ _Brenda_ said that they would be _happy_ to provide catering for Neil and Todd’s wedding.” Charlie writes ‘Brenda’s catering’ in ‘rambunctious red’ in the wedding notebook. “You know no one else is going to understand what ‘Brenda’s catering’ means,” Steven says.

“Good. Let’s write the entire thing in Latin.”

“Alright, Charlie. Tell me some conjugations of _habeo_.” Charlie laughs.

“Ha! I probably couldn’t have even done that when I was _learning_ Latin.”

“You’re a mess! That verb means ‘to have’! It’s one of the most common verbs there is!”

“Have I failed you, O former Latin tutor?”

“Yeah. You suck. Text Neil and Todd for me, though, about the catering place. And _don’t_ call it ‘Brenda’s catering’ when you text them.”

“Brenda’s catering is a very legitimate business, and I’m sure that Brenda is a _wonderful_ person even though I’ve never had a chance to meet her because I’m sure she’s _terribly_ busy with her highly successful catering company.” Steven doesn’t _want_ to laugh at this ridiculousness, but he starts snickering just the _slightest_ bit, and then, it escalates and he can’t stop.

“Fucking _Brenda_ ,” He mutters, a hand on his forehead.

\-               

When Charlie comes home from work the next day, he finds Steven with a (‘boring’, his mind substitutes, because he’s so used to the names of the pens they use for the wedding notebook) pen in his mouth, typing away on what looks to be a calculator. Steven’s hair is fussed up, and he looks stressed; Charlie almost doesn’t want to say anything, but he knows that it can’t be good for Steven, and well…Charlie doesn’t want a dead roommate.

Someone has to help pay rent.

(And, you know, he cares about Steven. Just a little bit.)

“What, you’re not feeling ‘yes to yellow’?” Charlie asks from the doorway.

“I’m planning a wedding, working, _and_ trying to be an engineering student all at the same time. No, I’m not _feeling ‘yes to yellow’_.” Charlie moves away from the doorway and comes to sit on the couch next to Steven. He looks over what Steven is clacking out on his calculator and what he’s typing on his laptop and frowns.

“Are you…doing stuff for a class or for Todd and Neil’s wedding?”

“Both. I’m alternating between the two.”

“Steven, you need to take a break.”

“Take a break? Charlie, I’m almost done with this work for my class, and Neil and Todd’s wedding is in six months! And now that their parents have said that they’re going to chip in too…well, we just have to reevaluate a lot of things and _so many things_ aren’t done yet and—” Charlie slaps a hand over Steven’s mouth.

“Okay, Steven, I’m gonna ask you two questions. One, how close are you to finishing what you need to do for class? Two, when is it due?” Charlie removes his hand from Steven’s mouth and figures that he’s lucky that Steven didn’t try to bite him.

“Charlie, I have like a page or two left and it’s due next week, but Neil and Todd’s wedding—”

“You know just as well as I do that Neil and Todd would be happy _without_ a wedding. We’re doing great, okay?” Steven looks at him and sighs. “I’m gonna give you thirty more minutes with all this shit, then I’m dragging you away from it. Physically, if I have to.”

“I kind of doubt that you could do that.”

“Don’t try me.” Charlie goes to leave Steven alone then, making a mental note of what time he has to come back and check on him.

Charlie spends the thirty minutes he has doing schoolwork while using his bed as a plate for the three slices of pizza he nabbed from the refrigerator before he retreated to his room. Thirty minutes later, there’s another greasy patch on Charlie’s bed, and he’s actually gotten quite a bit done. When Charlie goes to check on Steven, he’s still working. Charlie had expected as much, honestly.

“Come on, Steven,” Charlie tells him. Steven sighs, but he _does_ come willingly.

Charlie leads Steven out of their apartment and around the apartment building. “Should I be afraid that you’re going to murder me?” Steven asks.

“Don’t tempt me,” Charlie calls over his shoulder as he starts to climb up a metal ladder that Steven honestly had never noticed before. The two of them climb up, in Steven’s opinion, an absurd number of steps, especially considering the fact that it’s dark outside and they can only see because of the streetlamps.

The stairs lead all the way up to the roof of Steven and Charlie’s apartment complex. Once they reach the top, Charlie throws himself out onto his back like he’s done it time and time again. Steven just gives him a _look_ because he doesn’t even feel like _voicing_ his exasperation. “Quit standing there; come lie down,” Charlie tells him.

“Isn’t it like…gross?”

“You’re gross.” Steven figures that he agreed to come up to the roof, so he might as well.

Steven lies down on the roof next to Charlie, wriggling around a bit until he’s sort of comfortable. “So…what are we doing up here?” He asks.

“Look _up_ , Steven, Jesus!” Charlie makes a grand gesture at the sky. “You know what we’re doing right now? We’re _stargazing_. It’s a lot more fun to do in the countryside, but it works here too. Sort of.” For several quiet moments, Charlie and Steven observe the night sky together. The stars that they _can_ see are kind of hazy, but the view is still nice, and the height that they have on top of their apartment building makes the view feel more refined for whatever reason even though Charlie knows that people have fucked up here and Steven is pretty sure of the fact.

“You’ve been to the countryside?” Steven asks after a while because it seems uncharacteristic of the rich families of their former private high school to associate themselves with the _countryside_.

“Yeah,” Charlie says, “I have this uncle who my family doesn’t talk to anymore who lives in a little house miles away from civilization; his closest neighbor is a farmer a few miles away from him named Grace. I went to his house a few times as a kid, and the thing that amazed me the most was the way the stars looked. It’s really beautiful.”

“I didn’t know that about you,” Steven says. Charlie shrugs.

-

Todd and Neil discover the existence of the wedding notebook on the day that they go out to buy their suits. Charlie and Steven come along (mostly because of Charlie’s insistence that they do) as well as a few of Todd and Neil’s relatives. With all of this being so, one would think that desired details about the suits would be rather established.

This isn’t the case, however.

“White suits in a field? You’ll get grass stains all over your pant legs!” Charlie says when Neil brings up the idea of white suits.

“I don’t want black suits, though,” Todd puts in, “that’s too typical. Maybe a gray?”

“How about light gray?” Neil asks.

“Light gray works,” Charlie says.

“Did you guys just come with us to criticize our coloring choices for attire for our wedding?” Neil asks.”

“Something like that,” Steven says from the driver’s seat, “Charlie really wanted to come. I told him that it wasn’t going to be much like _Say Yes to the Dress_ , but he insisted.”

“Excuse you, Steven, _Say Yes to the Dress_ is a heartwarming and interesting show that provides insight into wedding dress options that are available today and displays some of the most important moments in people’s lives.”

“Is Brenda one of your favorite wedding dress designers?”

“Brenda _is_ my favorite.”               

“Brenda?” Todd and Neil ask in unison, and Steven and Charlie nearly laugh themselves into tears.

In the parking lot of the suit store, Neil spots the wedding notebook in Charlie’s hands and says, “What is _this_?” as he snatches it away from him. Todd peers at it over his shoulder.

“Hashtag Todd and Neil’s wedding 2ksomething?”

“It’s um…the wedding notebook that we made. To help us uh…plan your wedding,” Steven says, obviously feeling more self conscious about the notebook than Charlie.

“Did you guys think about getting maybe…I don’t know…something that doesn’t look like it’s from _Wal-Mart_ instead?” Neil says as he and Todd start to flip through the notebook.

“It’s from Staples, thanks,” Steven says without really thinking about it. Charlie looks at him, surprised, and then starts to snigger. Steven resents the fact that the damn bastard has rubbed off on him.

“Why is it written in like 20,000 different colors?”

“Steven bought the notebook and I bought a pack of obnoxiously colored pens. Equal effort, you know?” Neil shuts the notebook and hands it back to Charlie, lightly shaking his head.

Walking towards the store with Todd’s hand in his, Neil whispers, “I think I know who’s gonna be _next_ to get married,” to him. Todd laughs a little.

“Do you think they’ll actually realize it soon enough for that?”

“Probably not.”

-

The only relatives of Todd and Neil’s that Steven and Charlie recognize when they enter the suit shop (“Of _course_ we’re the last ones here. I _told you_ that we were gonna be late if you spent that long doing your hair, Charlie!”) are Neil’s mother and Todd’s mother. Steven has a sneaking suspicion that Mrs. Anderson is only there because she loves weddings, though. With this suspicion that Steven has, it’s not really a surprise to him when Charlie and Mrs. Anderson butt heads.

Well, not exactly in a confrontational sense. Charlie and Mrs. Anderson butt heads in a passive aggressive sort of way that might be funny if their interactions didn’t pertain to Neil and Todd’s wedding.

“Gray suits?” Mrs. Anderson asks with just the slightest twinge of scorn in her voice when Charlie brings it up.

“Light gray,” Todd says, and Neil smiles at him.

“Why not black?” She asks, “That’s more traditional.”

“Neil and Todd like light gray, so those are the kind of suits they’re gonna get,” Charlie tells Mrs. Anderson. Her expression of neutrality falters a bit, but she offers no further resistance. Neil’s mother looks like she might want to chip something in too, but she almost looks…afraid. Steven is glad for that, especially considering the momentary fall in Neil’s almost constantly happy demeanor that Steven had seen when Neil had seen only his mother there at the suit shop out of his two parents.

Todd asks if he and Neil are going to help each other find their suits, to which Charlie and Mrs. Anderson reply, vehemently, “No!” and, well, Steven can’t help but to snicker at that, despite the glare that Charlie shoots him. Mrs. Anderson is insistent that Todd and Neil’s suits need to match, though, but not necessarily be exactly the same. Charlie looks pained to agree with her, and Steven thinks that’s funny too. Charlie and Steven set up a video call between the two of them, and Todd’s relatives and Steven haul Todd off to one end of the store, while Neil’s relatives and Charlie haul Neil off to the other side of the store.

Steven is apt to let Todd and his family look around and decide whether a suit looks atrocious or not themselves, though he does voice his opinion every now and then. After a while, from the phone that he has face down in his hand (because he _knows_ Todd would look), Steven hears his name instead of general suit banter, so he flips the phone over and brings it up to his face. He’s met with the sight of Charlie shoving Neil off to the side.

“Hey, we found a suit we like. Any luck with Todd?”

“No, not so far. Show me the suit so that we can make sure Neil and Todd don’t clash, though. I’ll make sure Todd doesn’t see.” Without Steven even asking them to do so, Todd’s family gathers around Steven’s phone, Mrs. Anderson nudging her relatives out of the way so that she can have the best view. Todd tries to sneak around so that he can see too, but his entourage absolutely does not let that happen.

After observing the suit that Neil likes, Steven says, “I think we can work with that. Thanks, Charlie. Don’t buy anything yet, though, in case we have some trouble finding something.” Charlie mocks a salute at Steven.

“Tell Todd I love him!” Neil calls from off-screen.

“I love you too, Neil!” Todd says, more quietly, also from off-screen, a blush on his face.

Todd’s suit is found not long afterward, and Steven shows it to Charlie and Neil’s entourage. Todd and Neil get fitted for their suits, and Steven crosses ‘SUITS’ off of the to-do list in the wedding notebook. Charlie spots Mrs. Anderson giving it a judgemental look, and he covers his mouth with his hand to hide his amused grin.

“Will you two at _least_ wear black ties?” Mrs. Anderson asks.

“I can deal with that,” Neil says, “how about you, Todd?” Todd thinks about it for a moment instead of immediately going along with what his mother says, and for that, Neil, Charlie, and Steven are proud of him. He agrees after some thought.

“I can live with black ties too,” Charlie says.

“Not your wedding, Charlie,” Steven reminds him before Mrs. Anderson can somehow kill him with her eyes.

-

“Charlie!” Steven says, opening the door to their apartment with so much excitement that he sends it crashing into the wall, “I found out that I aced my final today!”

“Which one?” Charlie asks, “The one that I found you studying for at three AM that one time?”

“Yes! That one!” Steven throws himself onto the couch, paying no mind to Charlie’s halfhearted expressions of discontent at having Steven’s limbs strewn all over his lap.

“I told you you would!” Charlie says, his voice softening just the slightest bit when he sees the grin on Steven’s face, “You’re so smart.”

“I mean, I _know_ , but…it’s just…hard sometimes, you know?” It’s a statement all in its own, though the ‘and planning a wedding doesn’t help’ part is implied. Steven lets out a happy sigh and inclines himself further into the couch. “I feel like never doing anything ever again.”

“Don’t stop now, brainiac,” Charlie says, shifting around some so it’s less of Steven’s feet in his lap and more of Steven’s legs, “you’re still gonna go a long, long way.” Charlie realizes how affectionate it sounds the minute it comes out of his mouth.

“Charlie?”

“And, like. You know. Todd and Neil’s wedding and stuff.” Steven scoots himself up so he’s basically in Charlie’s lap.

“Why, Charlie, I thought you were only with me because of Todd and Neil!”

“I am. Once they get married I’m moving out.”

Steven laughs and then says, “Do you really think I’m going far in life?”

Charlie wants to brush it off. He wants to dance away from the question and ruffle Steven’s hair up and call him a nerd. He wants to go back to when they were in high school, and Steven didn’t _worry_ as much, so _he_ didn’t have to _worry as much_ about Steven, and he didn’t have to all but force him to go to bed at three in the morning instead of studying himself raw. But, then, another part of him wants to tell Steven _yes_. _Yes_ , Steven, I think you’re going _so_ far in life; you’re so smart, and you’re goddamn _funny_ , and you still ace important tests when you’re working _and_ planning a wedding.

But, then, Steven _looks_ at him.

Charlie and Steven lock eyes, and then, it’s like Charlie doesn’t _need_ to say anything. Charlie blinks once, twice, three times, and then Steven is leaning forward. Charlie matches the action before he has a chance to think about it or anything else.

Then, Steven and Charlie are kissing. They both think, _oh_ , and then they don’t think of much else.

As they pull away, Steven sucks on Charlie’s bottom lip a little, and that makes Charlie’s brain go even foggier than it already is. Both of them look at each other in surprise, blinking at each other with wide eyes. Subconsciously, Charlie taps his fingers along where he had placed them on Steven’s back when they had been kissing.

“So, uh, that happened,” Steven says in a teeny tiny voice. Charlie notices that Steven’s lips are glossy with spit, and he can’t quite tell if the spit is his or Steven’s or _both_. It’s exciting.

“If I suggested that we do that again, like, _a lot_ , what would you say?” The question makes Charlie feel bare and vulnerable, but the way Steven shyly smiles at him makes it worth it.

“I think I would agree,” Steven says with a smile, “maybe even enthusiastically.” Steven kisses Charlie softly and sweetly for just a second. Charlie is sure that he has the silliest grin on his face, but he doesn’t care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have never been inside a suit shop, LOL. How exactly would two suits of the same color clash, you ask? Ask someone who's actually worn a suit at least once in their life, lmao.
> 
> Also, we're gonna assume that the class Steven is talking about is a semester class, okay.
> 
> I can't believe I made Charlie and Steven have an inside joke about some random person named Brenda omg.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out to be...pretty long! I didn't intend for it to be that way, but that's just what happened.

If Charlie had to marvel at one thing and one thing only about he and Steven’s newfound romantic relationship, he would marvel at how _easily_ he and Steven seemed to slip into the whole action of _dating each other_ (though, wouldn’t he like to marvel at the way that Steven’s lips feel against his own or the way that he can now slink up behind Steven, hook his arms around his waist, and place his chin onto his shoulder without needing any justifications for it at all).

Charlie and Steven already live together, already know little quirks about each other that are miniscule and colossal at the same time, but the way that they slide into this new type of relationship requires something more than that. Charlie thinks that they have to relearn each other with new eyes, which is something he’s very proud of thinking, as it sounds exactly like something Todd would think of, and Todd is really good at that sort of thing. But, for the life of him, Charlie can’t physically _see_ himself learning all about Steven all over again except in a romantic context.

One day, Charlie and Steven kiss for the first time, and then, it feels like they jump from that point to knowing what kind of cues the other gives when they want some of the other’s food and wouldn’t mind all that much if the other fed it to them in no time at all.

Steven and Charlie still work on planning Neil and Todd’s wedding; though, now, sometimes, when their hands brush together as they’re flipping through the wedding notebook, they kiss each other.  And then, maybe, they don’t quite get back on task for a while after.

-

All that Steven is trying to do is watch TV and drink the cup of hot chocolate that he made for himself. That’s really it.

Except, he can’t. Because Charlie is sitting right next to him, tapping at the keys of his laptop with an unnecessary amount of force and occasionally cussing under his breath or making frustrated noises. “Charlie, you’ve been working on that for over an hour. _Please_ , cut it out.”

“ _No_ , Steven, I’ve been trying to work on this for weeks! I just can’t get this right.”

“I don’t understand how you can get a best man’s speech _wrong_.”

“You just _can_ , Steven.”

“I wish you would let me read it.”

“No! It’s not done yet!” Steven sighs.

Steven and Charlie sit in (relative) silence for a while, Charlie still clacking away and Steven trying to pay attention to the show that’s on. Then, Steven has an idea.

“Remember how Neil looked that one day when Mr. Keating made Todd create a poem on the spot?”

“Um…yeah? Why?”

“Write about that.” Charlie’s angry clacking stops, and he looks over at Steven. “That was the moment that we knew that Neil was head over heels, wasn’t it? I think that’s a perfect thing to write about in a best man’s speech.” Charlie grabs Steven’s face and kisses him on the lips, noting the brief taste of hot chocolate he experiences.

Charlie doesn’t say anything, but he goes back to typing as Steven looks at him. Feeling Steven’s stare, Charlie says, “I know what to write now, thanks.”

After a few moments of quiet, Steven smiles and says, “Remember what Neil was like the first time he and Todd said they loved each other?” Charlie laughs, already looking much less stressed than he did just a few minutes ago.

“Remember what _Todd_ was like? I thought that he was going to _burst_ ; he was just…smiling all the time.”

“…You saw that too?” Steven asks.

“Yeah, but don’t tell anyone. I have to keep up my _image_.” Steven laughs.

“Whatever, Charlie.”

-

For once, Charlie and Steven have both gone to bed before midnight. Both of them have to get up early the next morning, Steven for work and Charlie for class, and they’ve somehow both decided that whatever work they have to do can wait. It helps, too, that Neil and Todd’s wedding plans are basically done, and Steven and Charlie are in that stage between planning and worrying that everything goes as planned.

Charlie is in a deep sleep when his text tone for Knox (which is part of the chorus of Carly Rae Jepsen’s _I Really Like You_ , something that is very startling to hear in the middle of the night) sends him jerking awake. His arms fly out and knock his phone off of his nightstand, to which Charlie lets out a few choice curses as he fumbles around for his phone on the floor. Charlie squints at the bright light that his phone gives off when he finally does retrieve it, but he manages to see that it’s around three in the morning, and he resolves to kill Knox for deciding that _now_ would be a good time to text him.

Charlie unlocks his phone so he can read the text from ‘Lovesick Puppy’, mumbling something like, “Fucking Knox,” under his breath as he does so.

Knox had sent him a picture of himself in a medium gray suit for the wedding with a caption relating to being a groomsman and ending with #sexaaayyyy. Charlie stares at the picture for a moment, trying to decide if Knox took the picture earlier and just now thought to send it or if he actually took the picture this early in the morning. Neither explanation really justifies being sent a text like this at this time of day, but Charlie just wants to try to make _some_ sense out of Knox’s thought process. Charlie tells him to fuck off and sets his phone back on the nightstand. Then, he remembers that, in all of their tizzy over _Neil and Todd_ , he and Steven hadn’t gotten suits for themselves.

Charlie _could_ have talked to Steven about this the next day, but, with how dazed he is at being woken up in this way, that idea doesn’t quite cross his mind, and he thinks that telling Steven about this _right now_ sounds like a pretty solid idea. So, Charlie gets out of his bed and pads across the apartment to Steven’s room.

Charlie throws himself onto Steven’s bed once he gets there, which causes Steven to wake up and flail around, kneeing Charlie in the thigh and nearly elbowing him in the face. That’s approximately the moment that Charlie realizes that this is a bad idea and that he could have talked to Steven later in the day.

“Charlie, what the _fuck_?” Steven asks, smacking Charlie in the shoulder and trying to chase away his feelings of _terror_.

“Um. I realized that we haven’t gotten our suits yet for Neil and Todd’s wedding.”

“Charlie, I almost _broke your goddamn nose_.”

“I kind of doubt that you actually would have broken my nose, but I do realize that this was a bad idea, and I’m gonna go back to bed!” Charlie tries to backtrack out of Steven’s room, but Steven grabs him by the arm. Charlie looks at him in confusion.

“Oh, no,” Steven says, “if you’re gonna come in here and wake me up when I have,” he checks his phone, “ _two and a half hours_ left to sleep, then you’re gonna do what I say. And I say that you come over here and lie with me because it’s fucking _cold_.” And, well, there might be other reasons too.

Charlie slides into bed with Steven, having to press himself nearly flush against him because of the size of the bed. In the morning, Charlie will realize that it was the first time that he and Steven had slept in the same bed together, but for now, he just relishes in how warm Steven is as he falls asleep.

Steven has to leave before Charlie’s alarm even goes off, and Charlie can’t help but to feel a little upset about waking up alone, but in the kitchen, there’s a big heart that wasn’t there the day before drawn on the whiteboard on the refrigerator, and Charlie tries not to feel too fluttery.

-

Steven and Charlie arrange a Skype call with Neil and Todd 40 days before the wedding. 40 days exactly: Charlie has been counting.

When the image of Neil and Todd appears on Charlie’s laptop screen, the two of them look as calm, collected, and _happy_ as ever, and…Charlie and Steven don’t understand.

Admittedly, Charlie and Steven are probably a lot more worried about the wedding than they would be if they were merely _guests_ rather than actually planning the wedding, but neither of them thinks that they’re worrying in an amount that is entirely unreasonable. Both of them can agree, though, that the amount that Todd and Neil are worrying _is_ entirely unreasonable. Mostly because they don’t seem to be worrying _at all_.

When Charlie mentions the fact that there are 40 days until the wedding, Neil says, “Oh, really? That’s exciting!” Charlie, brow furrowed, blinks a few times. After deciding that Neil is absolutely serious, he throws his arms up and walks out of frame.

“What’s up with Charlie?” Todd asks, seemingly just as lax about his impending wedding date as Neil. Steven opens his mouth to answer, but Charlie comes stomping back into the frame to answer for himself before Steven has a chance to say anything.

“What’s _up_ with me is that your wedding is in _40_ days, and you’re so calm about it! Me and Steven have probably gone over _exactly what’s going to happen_ about five times, and you guys are just…letting everything happen!”

“Well, yeah,” Todd says, “I’m just…happy when I’m with Neil. I’m happy that we’re getting married, but I’d just be happy being with him, you know?” Neil looks surprised for a moment then kisses Todd slowly and softly, looking at him with loving, loving eyes when they pull away. Steven and Charlie exchange glances, and they both know that they have to make this wedding as close to perfect as possible.

“Do you guys have your vows written out yet?” Steven asks once Neil and Todd are through with their moment.

“Oh,” Todd says, “I started working on my vows a few days after we got engaged. I still tweak them every now and then, though.”

“Oh my _God_ , Todd,” Neil says, “I only started writing my vows a month and a half after we got engaged!” Steven and Charlie both have the urge to say, ‘ _Only?_ ’.

“Speaking of vows,” Todd says, “I hear that you two are dating.”

Two thoughts run through Steven’s head, then: one, he _knew_ that he and Charlie should have told everyone about their relationship _before_ they put it on Facebook, and two, speaking of _vows_?

“Speaking of _vows_?” Steven says in a small, small voice, his face, along with Charlie’s, turning red. Neil snickers behind his hand at the entire scene.

“Todd’s just bitter because he owes me ten bucks,” Neil tells them. Todd huffs.

Deciding to ignore the fact that Todd and Neil were betting on his and Steven’s relationship status (though, one would be hard pressed to find someone who hadn’t been betting on Neil and Todd’s relationship before it started, including Steven and Charlie) in favor of combating the heat in his cheeks, Charlie says, “Yeah, we _are_ dating for your information, you nosey assholes.”

“If you had only waited until _after_ the wedding,” Todd says with a sigh.

-

Neil and Todd’s wedding invitations come in the mail a few days later; they’re adorable and well illustrated like Charlie and Steven knew they would be. They put their invitation into the box that they keep the rest of their items of note in (their high school diplomas, their birth certificates, etc.), the same box that Charlie has joked about being a ‘gold mine of entertainment’ for when they’re ‘old and decrepit’. Steven thinks that Neil and Todd’s wedding invitations will definitely be things to smile about in the future, though, Charlie’s teasing or not.

-

Steven is leaning against the wall of Charlie’s room, occasionally looking horrified, but mostly just looking smug. If Charlie wasn’t trying to actually be productive, he’d probably be rivaling Steven’s smug expression with an irritated one. Charlie finds an old, crusty sock in the back of his closet, sniffs it, wrinkles up his nose, and then throws it at Steven, knowing fully well that the crust on it is cum.  “Charlie!” Steven yells and then, after looking a bit closer at the sock (but _not_ touching it), says, “Is this sock fucking _cum_ stained?”

“Yep,” Charlie replies from inside of the closet.

“ _Charlie_.”

“Well, I mean, it’s not like you’ve never seen my cum before.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No,” Charlie admits, pulling out several empty chip bags from the closet and throwing them into the garbage bag that has been brought into Charlie’s room for the task of cleaning. _Ugh_ , Charlie thinks, _I haven’t cleaned a room since_ high school. “I can’t believe that you got me to do this.”

“I _told you_ I’d give you a massage.”

“Yeah, that’s the _worst_ part! If you told me four years ago that I would, as an adult, _willingly clean_ in exchange for a massage, not a blowjob or sex or anything like that, I would say no fucking way!”

“Well, I mean, I could give you a blowjob too,” Steven tells him. Charlie looks at him, and he feels a jolt of something he’s afraid to place a name for. Steven offers him a smile, which Charlie readily returns, and he thinks that that’s so _bizarre_ because he threw a cum stained sock at Steven just a few minutes ago, and he’s still willing to give him a blowjob and smile at him like _that_.

Steven moves away from his spot against the wall and walks around Charlie’s bed. “Do you think that we’re gonna be able to move this bed frame by ourselves? Because I _really_ don’t want to deconstruct and reconstruct it.”

As Charlie combs his fingers around in his closet to make sure that there aren’t any more wrappers or empty snack bags, he says, “Don’t you _like_ to deconstruct and reconstruct things, you nerd engineer?”

“Ah, yes, deconstructing and reconstructing bed frames. What a riveting and _fascinating_ task.” Charlie flips him off as he stands up and moves away from his closet. He crouches down to look under his bed and groans.

Charlie digs the trash out from under his bed, and Steven sighs. “Charlie, if there are stains under there when we move the bed, I’m seriously going to lecture you about the fabric composition of carpet, and, like, _ants_ or something.” Charlie stuffs the mass of trash into the trash bag and then stands up. “Throw the cum stained sock in there while you’re at it,” Steven says, “I don’t want to touch it.” Charlie rolls his eyes but does as he says.

Charlie puts the garbage bag in the trashcan outside and then helps Steven move the mattress off of the bed so that they can move the bed frame more easily. They discover that there aren’t any stains underneath the bed, for which Charlie is thankful for for reasons that have everything to do with Steven Meeks.

“Fuck,” Steven says when they’re at the door, “how are we gonna get it across the wood floor without scratching it?”

Charlie and Steven end up putting a blanket under the bed frame and carefully pushing it across the apartment into Steven’s ( _It’s_ our _room now_ , _not just Steven’s_ , Charlie thinks, and that makes him feel giddy) room.

The two of them tie the two beds together and then make their newly sized bed with their new, appropriately sized sheets. Charlie throws himself out on the bed when they’re done with it, grinning from ear to ear. He spends some time basking before he drags Steven down onto the bed with him and kisses him without having to worry about falling out of the bed if either of them moves around more than just an inch or two.

Charlie starts to kiss along Steven’s neck and his fingers have somehow slipped into his hair when Steven says, “So, do you want the massage or the blowjob first?” Charlie groans and untangles his fingers from Steven’s curls.

“Give me the massage first so I’m not all disoriented during the process.” Steven kisses along Charlie’s jaw and gets him to take off his shirt. “Look at how much _space_ we have!” Charlie says once he lies down, moving his arms all across their new bed. Though, Charlie goes quiet once Steven starts to massage him.

The reason for this is because Steven is really good at giving massages, for which Steven doesn’t really have a reason for (Steven had been surprised the first time that Charlie had told him he was really good at giving massages, as Charlie was and is the only person he’s ever massaged). It’s very easy for Charlie to get lost in his own head when Steven massages him.

Steven’s phone buzzes in his pocket, and he unlocks it and sets it along Charlie’s spine so that he can read his newest text while he massages Charlie. “It’s from Neil again,” Steven tells Charlie, and he hums in response, “he’s thanking me for talking him out of getting roses for the wedding.”

“He thanked me just _because_ the other day. Todd’s trying to get him to chill out.”

Steven says, “What kind of flowers do you think we should have when we get married?” and both of their hearts stop. “Forget I said that,” Steven says a little too fast. Charlie doesn’t say anything, but God, how is he supposed to forget about _that_?

-

It all starts with the radio that Steven had made and put in their kitchen. Steven had programmed it so that it would turn on at a certain time in the morning and play a calm, soft song that Steven knows the name of and Charlie doesn’t before switching to Charlie and Steven’s favorite radio station.

On this particular morning, it’s a nice temperature outside that just touches on cold. So, naturally, Steven and Charlie are thoroughly entwined when they wake up in the morning. They wake up around the same time, and a love song drifts through the apartment from the radio that Steven _made_ , and Charlie just thinks that that’s so _cool_ , even though Steven made a radio in high school too with Gerard. Charlie brushes some of Steven’s hair out of his line of sight.

Waking up _next_ to each other rather than practically on top of or under each other is still a fairly new experience, but both Charlie and Steven think it’s wonderful so far.

“This is so sappy,” Steven says, even as he’s staring at Charlie like he’s the most important thing in the world. He turns away after a few seconds, burying his face in his pillow. Charlie kisses him on the shoulder.

“Do you wanna shower together?” Charlie asks.

“No, I’m too groggy for you to jack me off. Especially when I’m in a slippery environment.” Charlie snorts.

“’Slippery environment’.”

“Charlie, did you know that I don’t like you?”

“What if I promise to keep my hands to myself?” Steven sighs as if he’s allowing something tedious to happen.

“Fine. But, if you can’t keep your hands to yourself, you have to go out and buy me my favorite chocolates.”

“Done deal.”

Charlie, to his word, keeps his hands to himself in the shower, but certainly not his eyes. He thinks that he might just buy Steven some of his favorite chocolates anyway, though.

He realizes that he knows what Steven’s favorite chocolates are without Steven telling him, and that Steven _knows_ that he knows. That’s not all that surprising considering how long he and Steven have known each other and the fact that they’ve been living together for a while, but….

Charlie knows a lot of things about Steven, now that he thinks about it as he and Steven are hanging out on the couch after leaving the shower and scrounging around the kitchen for suitable breakfast food. He knows that Steven had an intense fear of a lady that lived on his street when he was five because of these _looks_ that she gave people, and he knows that Steven likes bumper stickers but thinks having too many is tacky (and Charlie knows that that’s a jab at him too). He knows what type of chocolates are Steven’s favorites, what his favorite restaurant is around town and in general, and he even knows what type of gum makes Steven’s mouth feel numb. He knows a lot of _physical_ things about Steven too now, like just how to scrape his teeth across his throat to make him make this noise that makes Charlie’s dick _and_ heart pulse and throb. None of these things are revelations in that moment—some of them he’s known about for a while, even—, but Charlie’s…never exactly _thought_ about them before.

Well, until _now_. Charlie taps at a little spot at the top of Steven’s back absently as he thinks and says, “I like this freckle right here.”

Steven says, “I was barely aware that I had a freckle there until you mentioned it.” And that’s…something.

The rest of the world seems to get shoved into the background with the force of that statement, and Charlie only thinks, _Oh, God, I’m in_ love _with him!_ He stands up without a clear plan of what action he wants to take afterward. Steven looks at him, and Charlie knows that he can either sit back down and act like he didn’t just have a _major fucking realization_ or he can run. Somehow, Charlie gets caught between the two options, and he just keeps standing there, wordlessly, staring at Steven and having Steven stare back at him.

“Are you okay?” Steven asks, and with that, he’s effectively chained Charlie down; he has to confront this _right now_.

Charlie sits back down and cuddles Steven close to him. “I have to tell you something,” he says, “give me a minute.” He closes his eyes and thinks for a bit, letting the warm feelings caused by cuddling Steven wash over him. As he gets closer and closer to opening his eyes and telling Steven this fact that makes him feel excited, frightened, and spacey all at the same time, Charlie feels his heartbeat start to go faster and faster, and he wonders if Steven can feel it too.

He wonders if Steven _feels it_ too.

“I love you,” Charlie says, too fast and too shaky. He doesn’t want to have to repeat those three words; he’s not even sure if he _could_ because it suddenly feels like he can’t breathe.

“Oh,” Steven says, and Charlie lets out a frustrated breath. “No, no, give me a second; shut up, Charlie.” Steven takes a moment. “I mean, I kind of knew that…maybe…but…” Steven is _smiling_ , and Charlie can suddenly breathe again, “do you wanna know when I figured out that I loved you?”

“You…love me?”

“Yeah,” Steven replies, looking bashful, which Charlie can’t understand because he’s so _happy_ , “I love you.” Charlie lets out a whoop of triumph and kisses Steven, practically just smashing their lips together because he feels so excited.

“Tell me the story,” Charlie says, smiling wide.

“Remember when you went to that shitty furniture store by yourself just to dick around, make fun of the quality of the furniture, and send me annoying texts? Well, you sent me this one next to an ugly ass _chair_ because the ‘lighting was right’, and it fucking _was_ , and you were _adorable_ , and…I realized that I was in love with you. And I freaked out a little bit and ignored your texts for like two hours.”

“You dick! _That’s_ why you weren’t texting me?”

“That’s the reason,” Steven tells him with a lopsided smile, and Charlie kisses him gently before trying to cuddle him impossibly closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's be honest: Knox Overstreet is the epitome of the song I Really Like You.
> 
> Honestly, when I first started writing this story I didn't plan to do more than just /vaguely mention/ sexual acts, but then, the cum stained sock thing happened and I basically said fuck it, and that's the story of how lines like "...like just how to scrape his teeth across his throat to make him make this noise that makes Charlie's dick /and/ heart pulse and throb" snuck in here.
> 
> I'm thinking that the actual wedding will be in the next chapter, and I'm sort of scared of how long that one will be to be honest. We'll see what happens, though!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wedding! What we've all been waiting for!
> 
> Sorry this took me so long, I had to wrap things up and make decisions for the story since this is the end.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!

Before Charlie and Steven go and get a room at a hotel near where the wedding will be, they go and visit Neil and Todd. Todd answers the door and lets them in, as Neil’s mother is there too and has Neil enveloped in a tight, squeezing hug. Steven knows that Charlie is going to laugh even before he starts doing it, so he elbows him in the ribs.

“Oh, hi, Charlie, hi Steven!” Mrs. Perry says, letting go of Neil and waving at them. “Can you believe that Neil’s getting married?”

“Oh, not at _all_.” Charlie says, smirking at Neil. Steven can already tell that this isn’t going to go well.

He can’t exactly say that he expects it, though, when Mrs. Perry says, “It seems like just yesterday you and Neil were running around in the backyard together. Oh, Charlie, remember when our dog knocked you into the mud that one time and you cried?” Charlie’s smirk vanishes, but a smirk appears on Neil’s face. Steven snorts and tries to cover it up by adjusting his glasses. Todd has just now made his way to where everyone else is, and he looks upon the scene in mild confusion.

“I—I was seven!” Charlie says in an effort to justify himself, which just makes Steven laugh harder.

“We all used to make cookies together,” Mrs. Perry says, unaware of Charlie’s embarrassment. Steven is glad that he met Neil and Charlie in high school.

Neil looks a little embarrassed, but Todd walks by, kisses him on the cheek, and says, “I think that’s sweet,” and he doesn’t look as embarrassed anymore. Charlie looks over to Steven as if he’s expecting some sort of similar reaction, but Steven just rolls his eyes at him.

Without the daunting presence of Mrs. Anderson looming over, Mrs. Perry is quite enthusiastic about helping with the wedding as she, Neil, Todd, Steven, and Charlie sit down and talk about a few last minute details. She also usually has pretty good ideas, too, considering the fact that she’s the only one in the room who has actually gotten married before. Admittedly, she _does_ go on for a rather long time, and for once, Charlie is actually thankful when he gets a ridiculous text from Knox in the middle of a conversation.

Charlie sort of regrets his text tone for him in that moment.

The text from Knox reads, ‘should I get Neil + Todd a puppy as a wedding present y/n’, and Charlie feels like running a hand down his face because now he has to dodge around the fact that Knox wants to get Neil and Todd a puppy as a wedding gift even though the two of them _live in an apartment_. Steven reads the text over his shoulder and clicks his tongue.

Charlie texts Knox, ‘NO U SHOULD NOT THEY LIVE IN AN APARTMENT’ and just tells Todd, Neil, and Mrs. Perry that the text was Knox asking about a wedding detail. Charlie uses the rift in conversation to take his leave, Steven in tow.

-

Charlie and Steven regret not calling any movers to help them about twenty minutes into setting up the wedding. They have three tables set up, and Steven is _over it_. “This is _ridiculous_ ,” he says, “let’s just call some movers to help us. I don’t care if it’ll cost more money.” Charlie laughs and leans some of his weight against one of the tables that they actually have set up.

“Tomorrow. Let’s just do this by ourselves for one day.” Steven huffs.

“Fine. But, we’re setting a time for when we stop working because if you think that I’m gonna be out here when it’s dark outside, you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Alright, alright, just help me move this next table.” They set a time for when they should quit and get back to work.

By the time that Steven and Charlie stop working on setting up the wedding, both of them very gladly lie themselves down in the grass and take a few moments to relax. Charlie slides a hand onto Steven’s cheek and then starts to give him loud, smacking, over-exaggerated kisses all over his face. Steven lightly swats at him, not really making a true effort to get him to stop.

“Stop, Charlie, you’re sweaty,” Steven says.

“You don’t _usually_ mind when I’m sweaty.”

“That’s because I’m the one making you sweaty. And, also, you know, I usually have an erection or I’m post orgasmic.” Charlie laughs and kisses Steven on the lips.

Eventually, they find it in themselves to get up and go back to the hotel.

-

Setting up Neil and Todd’s wedding somehow becomes a Thing. Steven and Charlie call in some movers, and Mrs. Perry and Gerard tag along too. Gerard is kind of an angel, though, so after the third day of working, everything is basically done, since Gerard managed to rope a _bunch_ of people into helping out. Charlie and Steven see all of their close friends from high school (and Richard Cameron, to which Charlie marvels at how _nice_ Neil and Todd are) as well as some people that they _don’t know_ , which is…kind of weird but not completely. Charlie slips an arm around Steven’s waist after everyone else has left and they’re left looking at this place where Todd and Neil are gonna get _married_.

“Remember when they were just little virgins?” Charlie asks, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye with the hand that isn’t around Steven’s waist. Steven groans.

“You’re _impossible_.”

“Really, though, when I first saw Todd, my first thought was definitely _not_ , ‘Gee, I bet that he’s gonna be the love of Neil’s life’.”

“If it was I’d be worried about you.”

“You know what I mean, Steven,” Charlie tells him, and Steven captures his lips in a kiss, two fingers placed deftly under his chin.

* * *

“I-I’m really, really nervous.”

“Oh, that’s natural, Todd.”

Mrs. Anderson fiddles some with Todd’s suit, tie, hair. “I’ve never seen you smile quite as much as you do when you’re with Neil,” Mrs. Anderson says, taking a few steps back so that she can get a better look at Todd.

“He’s good for you,” Jeff puts in from the side.

“You’re right, Jeff,” Mrs. Anderson says, “now, I wish you would find someone like that for you.”

“ _Mom_.”

“This is my day,” Todd puts in. His mother gives him a look that he can’t quite place but doesn’t pay too much attention to the comment.

“Is there anything you’d like to say before you become a married man?” Mr. Anderson asks from his place beside Jeff.

“No, I…I don’t think that anything will change except for legal stuff.”

“So, why are you nervous?” Jeff asks with a teasing smirk on his lips. Todd glares at him.

“Jeffrey, be _nice_ ; your brother’s getting married today.”

A relative comes by and starts talking to Mrs. and Mr. Anderson, and Jeff takes the opportunity to walk up to Todd and say, “Hey, Todd, everything’s going to be alright. More than that: everything’s going to be _amazing_. Neil loves you a lot; everyone can see it.” Todd smiles.

“Thanks, Jeff.”

-

“Mom, you can’t hug me all day.”

Mrs. Perry gives her son one last tight squeeze before letting him go.  “I just can’t believe that you’re getting married.”

“Is…is _he_ going to be here?”

“Yes, Neil. I promised you he would.”

“Okay.”

“Neil, your father really does want the best for you.”

“Mmhmm. I’m sure.”

“Let’s not talk about this,” Mrs. Perry says quickly, “ _today_ is not the day to talk about this.” Neil goes back to looking at himself in the mirror like he had been before his mother had enveloped him in a bone crushing hug.

It’s not too long before there’s a knock at the door, and Charlie opens it and comes in before waiting for an answer. Steven trails in after him, saying, “Charlie, the purpose of knocking is to _ask for permission to come in_.”

“Nah, the purpose of knocking is to let people know about your presence. Are you ready for some more company, Neil?”

“Yeah, but I mean…I feel…jittery.”

“Do you think you’re nervous or excited?” Charlie asks.

“Both,” Neil says, “isn’t that strange?”

“No. I think that’s…probably a very normal reaction.”

Neil runs a few fingers through his hair and then starts to smile. “I’m getting married!” he pauses. “I’m getting married to _Todd Anderson_!”

“Yes, you are. I’ll let everyone else in,” Charlie says with a smile.

Gerard, Knox, and a few people that Neil knows from college congregate into the room, all eager to see Neil. He receives lots of pats on the shoulder, and Knox says, “Gerard, Steven, Charlie, and I have to hop back and forth a lot between you and Todd due to _some people’s_ planning skills and the fact that everyone is all caught up about you two not seeing each other until you’re at the altar.”

“Our planning skills are _great_ , thank you very much, Knoxious. And, if you don’t want to go visit Todd, you certainly don’t have to,” Charlie says.

“Oh, you’re _going_ to visit Todd,” Neil says firmly.

“We all know that you’re gonna follow the whole ‘not seeing your future spouse until you get to the altar’ thing when you get married, too,” Steven puts in.

“That’s true,” Knox says.

As he, Charlie, Gerard, and Knox go to see how Todd is doing, Steven notices how Mrs. Perry is smiling at Neil and how happy Neil looks, going on about getting married and occasionally doing a spin or something of the like.

-

“How are you, Todd?” Charlie asks, sticking his head through the door without even bothering to knock this time. Steven flicks him on the back of his head, and Charlie swivels his head around to shoot him a look.

“What Charlie _means_ ,” Steven says, yanking Charlie back, “is, _after knocking first_ , can we come in?”

“Yeah, come in,” Todd tells them, an amused smile on his lips.

When Charlie, Steven, Knox, and Gerard come in, Todd’s friends from college are already there, and his family is still there. “Neil’s doing alright; we just saw him,” Knox tells Todd.

“Oh, gosh, _Neil_ ,” Todd says, running his hands through his hair. Mrs. Anderson clicks her tongue and smoothes his hair back down. “I’m just…this is…nerve-racking.”

“Isn’t it exciting, too, though?” Gerard asks. Todd pauses, and all eyes are on him.

“Yeah,” he says, a smile growing on his lips, “yeah, it really is.” And then, Todd is smiling bright and wide, and _everyone_ is certain that this wedding will be something to remember.

Everyone idles around Todd for a bit before Steven and Charlie duck out to check on various aspects of the wedding; Knox and Gerard are given free rein to travel between seeing Todd and Neil as they please, but neither Steven nor Charlie pays much attention to what they do after they leave them.

Steven and Charlie are talking about the wedding cake of all things, when they see Mr. Perry hanging around in the hallway. They both look at each other with wide eyes.

“What is _he_ doing here?” Charlie hisses.

“He can’t…he can’t be here to _say something_ , can h—”

Mrs. Perry slides out of the room that Neil is in, careful to only let the door open a minimal amount so that no one can see what’s outside. She sees her husband and walks over to him. “Do you think…do you want to go see Neil?” she asks.

“Do you really think that that would be a good idea?” Mr. Perry scoffs, a sneer on his face. Steven and Charlie back around a corner to avoid being noticed but still peek out so that they can see and hear what’s happening.

“…He’s really happy,” Mrs. Perry says softly. Mr. Perry hums in acknowledgement.

“Yes, well, I just came to check in. I’ll see you at the wedding, and I’ll save you a seat.” Mrs. Perry nods, and then, Mr. Perry is gone. Mrs. Perry goes back to be with Neil, and Charlie and Steven are left feeling like they’ve seen far too much.

-

Charlie is pacing.

Which, Steven kind of resents because if Charlie wasn’t, _he_ definitely would be. And, he and Charlie are a Duo, as much as they try to dismiss it, so _one_ of them has to look at least _alright_ or they’ll look _completely_ Not Alright, which isn’t good. Steven settles for nervously fidgeting with his sleeves in a way that he hopes isn’t noticeable.

Finally, Steven catches Charlie by the arm and whispers, “You have to stop, people are arriving.”

“I’ll make a deal with you,” Charlie says, “I can pace back and forth one more time and you can fidget with your sleeves some more, and then, we’ll both stop, okay?”

“Is my sleeve-fidgeting noticeable?” Steven asks.

“No, I just notice you a lot.” Charlie pecks Steven on the lips and paces back and forth one last time, while Steven fidgets with his sleeves a few last times.

Everything is set up for the wedding, and now, everyone is just waiting for everything to happen. Steven and Charlie had wanted to stay with Neil and Todd and hop along with them in their separate limos to come to the wedding once it was time, but they have the role of being the wedding planners, meaning that they had had to come to the wedding early and make sure that everything was in order.  They just hate having to stand there and listen in on the conversations of the wedding guests, though.

“Someone just said that I have a punk haircut,” Charlie says, now bouncing his heels instead of pacing, “honestly, I could take that as a compliment or an insult, but fuck them anyway.”

“I heard someone say ‘ugh, look at that ginger’ just a few minutes ago.” Charlie stops bouncing.

“Really? I didn’t hear that. Who was it? I’ll knock their teeth out.”

“Easy, Charlie, Todd and Neil are getting married today, just remember that.”

“You’re too good for me, Steven.”

The wedding officiant arrives shortly after this conversation, and Steven and Charlie talk to her about the whole plan for the wedding, even though she’d already had a rundown of it beforehand. She stands with Steven and Charlie and calmly talks with them; she’s been to enough weddings to know how to calm down exactly who needs to be calmed down.

More people file in, and Charlie finds himself flickering his gaze from Mr. Perry to Richard Cameron. His eyes settle on Mr. Perry, and he mumbles, “If someone says something, I’ll knock them out.”

“No one’s gonna say anything, Charlie,” Steven tells him.

The two limousines holding Neil and Todd (separately) pull up, and suddenly, Charlie and Steven both find it very hard to breathe. Knox, Gerard, and Neil and Todd’s friends from college get out of the limos first and find places near Charlie and Steven. Those sitting in the seats murmur to each other excitedly. Once everything seems to be ready, Charlie makes an exaggerated, not entirely necessary gesture to indicate to Neil and Todd that they’re ready. Charlie receives several glares for it (and Steven _told him_ that the gesture was ridiculous), but then, he sees Todd and Neil step out of their respective limos, and it doesn’t matter at all.

Neil and Todd see each other and smile like they’ve never been any happier. They get as far as gently touching each other’s arms before they remember that they’re _kind of getting married_ and link their arms together before walking down the aisle, their smiles never dimming. When they make it to the altar, they link their hands together, and it all suddenly seems so _real_. A few tears leak out of Charlie’s eyes, and Steven looks at him as if to say, _are you crying_? Charlie shakes his head, the action causing the tears prickling in his eyes to run down his cheeks. Steven lets out an amused huff.

Neil and Todd have watched enough wedding shows and movies in the past months to know how this will go. They hear, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…” and then the words seem to tumble away; they know what is said though they don’t really _hear_ it.

No one says anything when the minister asks if anyone has an objection to the union.

Charlie’s tears start to flow more freely when Neil says his vows, and he’s doing his best not to make loud, gross sniffling and sobbing sounds when it’s Todd’s turn to say his vows (Steven has started to tear up too; how can one not? Todd has always had a way with words).

Neil and Todd exchange their rings (certainly not _fancy_ things, but _theirs_ ), and then, they are pronounced husbands.

When Todd and Neil kiss, they get lost in it, and their friends know that, in another public circumstance, they would never kiss this _deeply_ and _passionately_ , but no one can really fault them. When they pull away, they definitely _are_ giving each other bedroom eyes (and that’s kind of weird to see, Charlie and Steven think), but thankfully, they’re reminded of the presence of _other people_ by the applause.

Neil and Todd hardly ever take their eyes off of each other, even as the wedding congregation moves from the altar to the other side of the field, where there are tables, food, and a ‘dancefloor’.

As everyone walks over to the other side of the field and the _food_ (Good _food too,_ Steven thinks, _that’s what we used most of the money that Neil and Todd’s parents chipped in on_ ), Charlie says to Steven, “God, I hope they shove cake in each other’s faces,” and Steven laughs because it’s so _weird_ , but it’s exactly the kind of thing Charlie would say.

While a newly married couple shoving their wedding cake in each other’s faces is certainly incredibly sappy and romantic by some strange laws of the universe, Neil and Todd manage to take the act of being _nauseatingly cute_ a step even further than this by affectionately feeding bite sized pieces of cake to each other with their forks. They make it even _worse_ by gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes as they do so, their non-dominant hands poised on their cheeks and wide grins across their lips; occasionally, they laugh just a bit, softly and gently, for reasons that others watching on can only decipher as how happy they are.

“Do they ever even fight?” Charlie asks, eating his respective slice of cake and watching the lovebirds of the hour.

“You know they do,” Steven replies, “they’re really fucking dramatic about it too since they don’t do it very often. Remember when Neil drove all the way to our apartment and whined for a few hours about how he would ‘never love again’?”

“Oh, God, don’t remind me. He ate all of our fucking pie, too. We actually _made_ that goddamn pie instead of buying it from the store for once!”

“Do you think you could slip Neil’s pie thievery antics into your best man’s speech somehow?” Charlie laughs.

“ _Today_ is definitely not the day to bring up the antics Todd and Neil get up to after they fight.” Steven snickers and moves himself just a _little bit_ closer to Charlie.

It’s such a happy day; troubles seem far, far away.

-

The music that everyone dances to is a mixture of traditional wedding-esque songs and pop music, a fact that some of the older attendees of the wedding look a bit disgruntled over but not overly so.

Neil and Todd dance with each other through most of the evening, though they do get passed around some by various members of their family. Todd looks a little distressed when his grand aunt dances with him, and Charlie not-so-subtly laughs at him as he and Steven come twirling by.

Both Charlie and Steven were taught how to dance when they were younger, and neither of them _quite_ remembers everything about the steps or the motions, but it doesn’t matter to them and it doesn’t stop them from having a good time.

-

Charlie has the goddamn sheet of paper out in front of him (he didn’t nearly have the dedication that Todd and Neil did when they decided that they were going to _memorize_ their beautiful, tear-jerking vows), but that doesn’t stop him from feeling nervous as everyone quiets down and all eyes are on him.

Jesus, what’s _wrong_ with him? He loves attention.

Steven taps ever so lightly as his ankle with his foot, though, and well, that’s one thing that he loves that _isn’t_ betraying him.

“You know,” Charlie says once he manages to will himself to speak, “it took me a bit to actually figure out what to say in this speech because, well, what can you say about two people who so obviously love each other so much? That, and I was intimidated by Todd’s ability to make everything he says sound poetic and beautiful,” there’s a bit of laughter, and now, Charlie’s got it.

“Anyways, Neil and Todd met when Todd came to our high school at the beginning of our junior year. I can’t exactly say that I expected this when I first met Todd,” more chuckling, especially from Steven, and Charlie grins as he continues, “but I did kind of realize that Neil and Todd are totally soul mates pretty soon; well, I mean, everyone did: we took bets.” Said people who qualify as ‘we’ groan and try to hide their faces.

“So, obviously, Neil and Todd started dating. That was all fine and dandy, but then, one day, I realized that it was really _serious_. You see, our English teacher at the time, Mr. Keating, made Todd create a poem on the spot in front of the entire class—which was really good—, and the way that Neil was looking at Todd was…telling, to say the least.

“But, even if I had never seen that particular moment, I could have figured out how much Neil and Todd loved each other in other ways. The way that Neil smiles whenever Todd is happy and talking and has everyone’s attention, the way that Todd looks at Neil when he thinks no one’s looking—or even when he thinks people _are_ looking sometimes—, how easily they managed to have the actions of poking and tapping at each other become normal, all of those sorts of things.”

Charlie talks about some of his favorite memories of Neil and Todd, from the time that they all went swimming together and Todd and Neil were in their own little world to the time that he had caught them slow dancing and hadn’t quite walked away until the kisses they were giving each other started to get deeper and deeper (and, well, Charlie doesn’t include that last part in the speech). Charlie had also very much wanted to include the one time that Neil and Todd came to class looking a bit _too_ ruffled, but he had figured that there might be an adverse reaction to that particular story.

Charlie spends some time talking about Todd and Neil individually as well (“when we were ten, Neil almost broke my arm,”, “Todd is the only person I know who will willingly talk with me about half of the shows on Discovery Life”) before he wraps up his speech.

“Todd, Neil,” Charlie says, making a grand gesture with his glass, “congratulations. I wish you the best of luck in life.” People clap as Charlie sits, and Steven taps at his ankle again, smiling at him when he turns his way. Everyone does one last ‘toast’ (they don’t even have _alcohol_ since many of those in the grooms’ parties are underage, something that Charlie finds to be hilarious and disappointing at the same time) to Neil and Todd.

-

The evening ends with Neil and Todd driving away with their abundance of wedding gifts after they’ve finally shaken off the endless congratulations that they’ve been receiving. As they drive away, Charlie whispers to Steven, “How much do you want to bet that Neil is sneaking his hand up Todd’s thigh right now?” Steven laughs.

Charlie and Steven had had the intention of staying after to start ‘packing away’ the wedding, but they find that they’re much too tired to do that. They can clean everything up the next day with the help of hired movers.

-

A few weeks later, Steven and Charlie receive a postcard from Todd and Neil. They had gone to the beach nearest to them for their honeymoon, and the postcard features a picture of the two of them lying on two beach chairs, Neil kissing Todd on the cheek while Todd takes the picture and smiles. Charlie tacks it onto their refrigerator.

“We really did it, didn’t we, Steven?” Charlie says, wrapping his arms around Steven and kissing him soundly.

“Yeah. It stressed me the Hell out, though.” Steven kisses Charlie back, and for a while, that’s all that they do.

Later, Charlie and Steven take some time to watch T.V snuggled on their couch together, and they soon receive some texts from Todd and Neil with pictures of them on their honeymoon. The pictures range from regular selfies to pictures of the other in the ocean. Steven and Charlie never quite get tired of being sent pictures from Neil and Todd of the other with the caption ‘my husband <3’.

-

Years in the future, Charlie and Steven hire _professional_ wedding planners for their wedding.


End file.
